ReWind: ELVIS the Prototyper 2.0

The past few years I've been fortunate to work with the students in the Exhibition Design Master's program at FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) in Manhattan.

My presentations always cover one of my favorite, but often overlooked, design topics: Prototyping! 

In my opinion, most exhibit design misfires could be prevented by more thorough prototyping at the beginning of the exhibit development process.

In addition to warping the minds of these young up-and-coming exhibit designers with my corny jokes and some rapid/cheap prototyping exercises using paper and masking tape,  part of my presentation also dealt with how to use the word ELVIS as a mnemonic (memory aid) for exhibit designers when they are developing prototypes.  I've updated the "I" in ELVIS, so consider this "Elvis the Prototyper" 2.0

 E = Everyday Materials
Using everyday materials makes it easier to prototype AND maintain exhibits.  I'd much rather spec something from McMaster-Carr or the local Radio Shack that does the job, rather than creating a custom component that will be tricky to replace later on.

L = Looseness
Providing open-ended opportunities during exhibit development and for the visitors.  The best exhibits (and exhibit developers!) are not one-trick ponies, they are wired up to allow multiple successful outcomes.

V = Vermicious
The word means "wormy." Good exhibits and prototypes should "worm around" your head on many different levels: old/young, art/science, beginner/expert.  If you can find a way to conceptually and actively "hook" your visitors, they'll remember your exhibits.

I = Iteration

Try, try again!  There's no such thing as a prototype that's "perfect" the first time.  Try your ideas out with people, think about what you've found out, then change your prototype for the next round of exhibit (or label or programming or whatever) testing.

S = Sharing
We should be sharing ideas with our visitors, and each other as professionals.

In that spirit, don't forget to check out The Great Big Exhibit Resource List, a free compendium of great resources for designers, makers, AND prototypers.

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The Ubiquitous Donor Wall

I'm gathering up images of great examples of Donor Recognition walls (or installations) for a future post.

(Rather than just "Googling" donor walls, I'd rather have a human-mediated search via ExhibiTricks readers and recommendations from museum/exhibit/design colleagues.)

So, if you have images and descriptions of truly outstanding and/or striking Donor Walls (like the one from California Academy of Sciences above) send them along via email.

Thanks!

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Are Vanishing Field Trips Creating The Lost Museum Generation?

Every type of museum should keep working to make their institution accessible and appealing to their youngest visitors.

That is what I kept thinking about when Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors gave a Skype talk to my Bank Street graduate class yesterday.

Susie shared many interesting findings and insights regarding her Museum Audience research (much of which can be found on the Museum Audience Insight blog) but the one that stood out for me was the notion that if people don't get into the "museum habit" through visits when they are young (by 7 or 8 or so at the latest) they probably won't consider museums "necessary" (not just "nice") when they become adults. 

If children don't visit museums while they are still in grade school they simply won't grow up to be "Museum Advocates."

Perhaps these findings struck me because I'm a parent who just naturally wants to visit museums with my family (because that's what my family did when I was a kid.)

Maybe the importance of fostering positive attitudes in children toward museums resonates with me because of the parallels in research studies about children's attitudes toward science, in general, and science careers, in particular.  (Basically if you don't make science interesting/fun/compelling in elementary school, you've lost them in the upper grades.)

But I think more than anything, I'm seeing the scary ramifications of the "No Child Left Untested" mindset of current public school education that sees field trips to museums as "unnecessary."   As research on Museum Advocates shows, the first (and perhaps) only exposure children from lower socioeconomic households and families with lower educational attainment have to museums is through field trips. 

So what happens to the pipeline of early museum visitors that we want to grow up to be active adult consumers of culture if there are no museum field trips?  Museums already have a "demographic problem" in the fact that museum visitors tend to skew "Older" and "Whiter" than the way population trends (as projected by the census) in the U.S. are heading.

It's scary.  And it makes me fear for a robust future for museums filled with truly diverse audiences, not just the affluent and highly-educated (two groups, regardless of race or ethnicity,  that are clearly tied to early family visit to museums.)

I'd say it also reinforces the importance of both Children's Museums and child-friendly offerings in every type of museum.

I'd love for ExhibiTricks readers to share positive examples of programs, exhibits, and institutional attitudes that foster a love of museums in our youngest visitors.  Leave your thoughts and ideas in the "Comments Section" below or send me an email and I'll gather all the thoughts up to share in a future post.



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Rocket Scientist: An Interview With Wayne LaBar

 

Wayne LaBar is the founder and principal of ALCHEMY studio, an experience and institutional development, design and consulting services studio located in Maplewood, NJ.  Alchemy Studio works with museums, science centers, boards, civic leaders, governments, NGO’s, filmmakers and others involved in the informal learning field.  

With over 26 years of museum experience and numerous papers and presentations, Wayne’s former roles include: Vice President of Exhibitions and Featured Experiences at Liberty Science Center (Jersey City, NJ), Director of Exhibits at The Tech Museum (San Jose, CA), Project Manager at Krent/Paffett Associates, Inc. (Boston, MA) and Project Manager at the Carnegie Science Center (Pittsburgh, PA). Wayne is currently the Vice President on the Board of the National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME.)

We're happy that Wayne was able to share some time (in between jetting around the world!) to share some thoughts with ExhibiTricks readers.

What’s your educational background?   Rocket Scientist. Really. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech. I also worked at NASA. After that, I began a doctorate in Planetary Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh… until I ran away with the circus, which is my euphemism for joining the museum/science center field.


What got you interested in Museums?   Well, on one hand, personally I’ve always loved going to museums. Some of my earliest memories are of visiting the American Museum of Natural History, and visits to places such as the Franklin Institute. These probably set the stage for what I think is your real question. How did I get into this business? Like most good stories, this involves a woman. In fact, one morning my girlfriend at the time in Pittsburgh mentioned that there was an ad in the paper for somebody with a biology degree  and for someone with an engineering degree  to join the Buhl Science Center and help develop the exhibits for a new science center (to be the Carnegie Science Center). We both applied as she was a biologist and I for the engineer position. I got a job and she didn’t. If you’re wondering, yes we broke up.

How does working with teams to create exhibits inform your design process?  (Or does it?)   All of my exhibit and design experience is one of a team process and approach. I think this is one of my favorite parts of the work I do. Learning, interacting, being inspired by others - all come from this process. While I believe that certainly there is usually a vision (for an exhibition down to a single experience) that must drive the process, it always takes the talents and abilities of team members to make an exhibition or exhibit sing.


Tell us a little bit about how your engineering background informs your exhibit design work.   I was once asked what I learned in college. After thinking for a bit, I said “I learned not to be intimidated by problems but to solve them.” It is that skill that I see most in my work. To earn that degree and solve those problems required thinking logically,  being imaginative, working with teams, doing research, being creative, being thorough and focusing on detail.  I use all of those every day.

What are some of your favorite online (or offline!) resources for people interested in finding out more about exhibition development?  Well first, a plug: visit my blog to see some of my personal insights and inspirations about exhibition development. Also, check in to ExhibitFiles, the NAME website and books such as Kathy McLean’s Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions.

Another great resource is the NAME journal: “Exhibitionist.” I would recommend that anyone interested in the museum exhibit business should subscribe.” Link: https://aam-us.org/ProductCatalog/Product?ID=11

I also go to several sites for inspiration which are not directly related to exhibit development. I suggest Fast Company, Wired, Gizmodo, and io9.

What advice would you have for fellow museum professionals, especially those from smaller museums, in developing their exhibitions?   I would examine what differences a smaller institution has over a larger institution and then leverage those to do something different, something that stands out. I would imagine that, at a smaller museum, there can be less bureaucracy, thus maybe allowing teams to be more nimble and experimental, trying things out more, open to more partnerships, probably more community-centered. Identify and use these attributes.

What do you think is the “next frontier” for museums?   Well, I think that museums, at their heart, focus on passion. What I mean is that whether it’s art, science, history, different collections, music or even memorial museums, they are a celebration of human passion for a subject - passions to study a subject, to collect, to understand the world, to create artistic expression, to connect across cultures, to inspire shared vision. The next frontier is for museums to embody the passion they are about. Too often museum organizations’ structures stymie passion in visitors and staff. Museums need to let go.

What are some of your favorite museums or exhibitions? 

The most recent can be seen on my blog.  Other places that are my favorites: House of Terror in Budapest, Science Museum of London, Melbourne Museum, American VisionaryArt Museum in Baltimore, the City Museum in Saint Louis and, of course, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Can you talk a little about some of your current projects?   Yes, the studio is working on several projects right now.   We are deeply involved in bringing science centers to Saudi Arabia, and there are several science center or informal science learning projects that we are part of. In addition, we are helping an emerging children’s science center in Northern Virginia. Additionally, we are working with the Australian National Maritime Museum to help them think through and reimage their exhibit experience. 

We are also working on a giant screen/IMAX scale film about large-scale engineering projects. ALCHEMY studio has projects in several different mediums from the museum field – permanent exhibits, traveling exhibits, programming & curriculum, media, organizational strategy, master planning, operations, and pretty much anything and everything else related to dreaming about, launching, or running a museum.

If money were no object, what would your “dream” exhibit project be?

Well, certainly, if I could, I would love to do an incredible science/culture/art of cooking exhibition. Having a lot of design, research and ideas from previous work, it would be wonderful to do that project. For something completely different, I would love to an exhibition on the space station. One for astronauts!

Finally, it would be a joy to do a project about and for my two Labrador Retrievers – Reposado and Anejo. Yes, they are named after tequila which would also be a great project to do! Get me started and I’ll keep coming up with new projects!

 
Thanks again to Wayne for sharing his thoughts! You can find out more about Wayne and his work via the ALCHEMY studio website.




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All Hail The Queen!

History and "the past" are really all about context, aren't they?  I was thinking about that today as I finished putting together a wonderful little project called FlipBooKit that I backed on Kickstarter (pictured below.)

FlipBooKit is a "flip book" type of animation device in a little box that is operated via a hand-turned crank on the side.  The animation style brings to mind a Mutoscope and also the ground-breaking work of Eadweard Muybridge.  The late 1800s saw a burst of clever animation devices (including the Thaumatrope, Zoetrope, Pheanakistascope, and Praxinoscope)  that led directly to motion pictures.

It's amazing in our age of 3D and HD video, not to mention animation and video editing software, that these low-tech Victorian-era devices and techniques have such a hold on us. 

Or is it?

Think about how "Steampunk" (essentially a mash-up of Victorian-era styling and cool technologies) has invaded movies, science fiction, art, cosplay, Maker Faires (usually with a designated Steampunk section) and even museum exhibitions!

Since we're on the subject of Victorian-era influences on our modern world, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the brilliant book entitled "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage.  (An absolute steal in paperback for only $5.98 at Amazon.  Hurry --- it's a limited supply at this price for some reason.)

Standage argues (quite effectively) that the telegraph (The Victorian "Internet" of the title) actually ushered in many of the advances that we associate with the modern Internet.  Creating New Identities? Hackers? Online Romance? Near Instantaneous Transmission of News Stories?  Been there, done that, and in the time of Queen Victoria, to boot.  (Standage's book takes some of the air out of the puffed-up arguments concerning so-called "digital natives" as well ...)

So all hail Queen Victoria!  (Or at least the years associated with her reign.)  The devices, designs, and technologies in force during the late 1800s have certainly given designers and developers numerous inspirations so many years later.



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ReWind: Inventables

As I've been thinking about and developing "maker" type spaces a lot these days, I thought I'd commend the Inventables website to ExhibiTricks readers again.

Who wouldn't love a website that provides cool stuff like Soft Gel Magnets or Aluminum Foam?   Inventables is just such a website, and it's been great fun trying out their stuff for new exhibits and prototyping projects.

The clean and simple Inventables website gives you examples of new and interesting materials (with specs!) to investigate,  as well as nice search features that lets you sort materials by qualities like "glow in the dark" or "magnetic".

Also, the Inventables site lets you buy small quantities of materials at relatively inexpensive prices.  Maybe you could set up demos or materials science investigation areas for visitors --- a "Material of the Month" perhaps? 

So take a little "mad money" from your current project budgets and click on over to the Inventables web site.  Who knows where some of those cool materials may lead you?

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P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)